The Insanity of the Palin Pick, Redux

From the Editors:

When an entry on Sarah Palin, McCain's VP pick, was originally proposed, we figured "what the hell", we'll go with it. We are all varying degrees of liberal here and none of us like Palin, so despite this blog generally being focused on China, we figured it was time to join in on the Palin pile-on.

The "correspondent" who wrote the entry may not have been wholly clear in what she said, but we still support the gist of her argument. The Palin pick feels like a bad reality TV show, "Who Wants to Be America's Next Vice President." What makes it even scarier is the fact that John McCain's health is what you'd expect of a septuagenarian, that is to say, it's day to day. If elected, one wonders if his health will keep him in good enough shape to make it through four years in the White House, making his Vice Presidential choice absolutely important.

We respect and appreciate everyone who comments and emails us, both in support of an entry and opposing the views of an entry. The "Insanity of the Palin Pick" entry has caused a bit of an uproar, perhaps mainly due to the writer not being clear enough.

We have nothing against people from small towns, people who attended community/junior colleges, mediocrity, graduates of the University of Idaho, or hockey moms (we definitely have nothing against hockey moms, one of us is a proud product of a great hockey moms and hockey families sacrifice a lot for their children). We don't even have anything against people who'd name their kids Track, Piper, and Trig.

Sarah Palin was mayor of a tiny town in Alaska for 6 years and has been Governor of Alaska for less than 2 years. This, to us, is not enough experience for someone who would literally be a heartbeat away from sitting in the Oval Office. Her previous career was as a sports reporter for a TV station. Is this the person you want staring down Putin or Hu Jintao? Is this the person you want in charge of a nuclear arsenal? While Obama doesn't have overwhelming "experience", he has spent many years being a servant of his community, in one way or another. Yes, Joe Biden is from Delaware, hardly considered an important state, but his career in public service has lasted almost as long as Palin has been on this earth.

The Bush years brought the nation down to a new low, it showed that we would accept mediocrity in the White House if it was packaged right. We don't think the qualities we listed above (ie being from a small town, being a hockey mom, even being a graduate of the University of Idaho) disqualify anyone from being Vice President (or even President). As we said, one of our mothers was a wonderful hockey mom, but that doesn't make us think she'd be a good pick for VP. Looking at Sarah Palin and her pitiful credentials for the job, it makes it obvious there is one reason John McCain picked her, because she is a woman. It seems Palin was one of the few, if not the only, young female Republicans around, and so McCain, weary of picking a Libby Dole or Kay Bailey and thus being identified as the AARP ticket, chose the only young female, even though she was completely unqualified.